By Carla Miller
This is a compilation of birding commentary from various field trips the last several months as we struggled to bird together during a pandemic. Most names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Winter to Autumn, 2021~
Linda: “What’s up with all these snow geese hanging out with these cacklers?”
James: “Well, you know…..birds of a feather….”
Counting cackling geese at Nisqually:
Kim: “How many cacklers are there?”
Cindy: “a BOAT load.”
Kim: “Is that your polite way of describing them?”
Cindy: “Yes,,, That’s not what I was thinking!”
A group of birders searching for a previously seen Bushtit nest:
Cindy: “I keep imagining a Bushtit nest.”
Shep: “Sometimes that’s how you find it.”
Cindy: “Yeah, Ken says if you can imagine it, you can see it.”
Shep: “I call that Faith-based birding.”
On warbler identification:
Tacoma birder: The Orange crowned warbler sounds like it’s running out of gas, but the Yellow doesn’t.
Jeff to Shep: “You’re a veterinarian…is this just a broken blood vessel,” he asks as he shows him his injured hand.
Crows or ravens?
Steve: “That tree, the one with the large bird in it.”
Ed: “Is it a crow or a raven?”
Steve: “It’s a craven”
Photo caption: Bushtit nest
Photo by Rylan J. Daniels, Wikimedia Commons
